001Good evening everyone and welcome to the Academy District 20 Board of Education candidate forum. I am Matt Meister. I am the chief meteorologist at Fox 21 News here in town. Schools are very important to me and I am honored to be here this evening to serve as our moderator. Thank you so much for joining us uh here at Liberty High School and on the Academy District 20 YouTube live stream. Tonight's forum will be recorded and will be available for replay for members of our community. So over the next uh several weeks, uh we encourage you to share that with your neighbors. Our goal here tonight is very simple. It's to help our community hear directly from the candidates in a fair, efficient, and respectful format. And so with that, we want to ensure and make
002you aware of the format and rules for this evening. All seven candidates will answer every question. Each response is 75 seconds except for the introduction where they will have one minute. Tonight, the candidates that you see are seated in ballot order and for each question as we move through the list, we will alternate who speaks first and I will guide us through that tonight. There are no rebuttals and no cross talk. For those of you here in attendance this evening, I will give you an opportunity to welcome the candidates and then you will have an opportunity to thank them at the end of the evening. candidates for you. I want to walk you through how the time is going to work. You see a timer in front of you this evening. Uh when there are
00330 seconds left in your allotted time, you will see a yellow light uh illuminate on there and then there is a red light that will illuminate when your time is done. We will allow a brief 5-second grace and then your microphone will be turned off here in the room and on the stream and we will move on. Questions asked this evening were derived through community interest. A form was circulated broadly by the district 20 communications team and more than 100 questions were received for consideration. Due to this five themes were identified from the community and questions have been formatted using this information. So thank you so much for participating in that. Additionally, the board members remaining on the board of education and who are not up for election submitted two questions for the candidates tonight.
004There was no opportunity for candidates to preview the questions and all questions will be displayed on screen in the auditorium above you that the candidates can see and I will also read them aloud. I'd like to thank those on the production staff uh for getting us ready for tonight. We also have staff supporting accessibility, captions, and timing. It makes a lot of people for something like this to go. So, let's meet tonight's candidates. I will introduce them seated in the order they will appear on the ballot. And please hold your applause until I've introduced all of them. Holly Trip, Renee Mallaloy, Lulan, Brandon Clark, who is joining us virtually this evening, Susan Payne, Eddie Waldrip, Jennifer Stites, and Cynthia Halverson. Please welcome the candidates. We'll begin with one minute introductions in their seated order. And
005so, Holly Trip, you have one minute. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for being here and thanks to those that are joining us online as well. Thank you Matt for hosting and D20 and Liberty High School. We just really appreciate being able to be here. I have a military family. We moved here in 2010 and were blessed to be able to stay. So my kids came up through D20 schools. In addition to small business experience, I have a background in education teaching ELLL English language learning students for several years as well as working for over a decade in uh classrooms across the city as a storyteller. I believe our children are our greatest responsibility and greatest gift. And as I work with those different populations over time, I've seen a yearning that they have
006for opportunities that a great education can give them. I'm dedicated to ensuring our kids have that kind of education and those kinds of opportunities. Thank you. >> Thank you, Renee Mallaloy. Love, you have one minute. >> Thank you. I was born in Colorado Springs and actually grew up K through 12 in District 20. That's right, Air Academy High School. Um, I come from a family of educators. My mom taught at Eagle View Middle School for over 17 years and I have taught as a university professor. Most importantly, I am a proud parent and aunt to students currently in the district. And while I do have exceedingly strong ties to the district and education, uh, I also bring to the school board my history in terms of bringing to life uh, visions through design. So I
007have designed and delivered project managed projects across the country and internationally. These are large-scale projects across college campuses with working with municipalities etc. So when it comes to creative problem solving when it comes to thinking in terms of how do we get from point A to point B I've worked from project management all the way through student and and community engagement all the way through construction management and observation. I'm proud to run with Brandon Clark and Jenna Stites. And thank you. >> Thank you, Brandon Clark. One minute. >> Great. Hey everybody. I appreciate you letting me join virtually tonight. I wish I could be there in person, but unfortunately I'm in Australia for work this week. It is Thursday morning here, so I might have a slight advantage because I got to have coffee while
008you guys are winding down for the evening. Um, but I am a dad of three young kids who are either currently in or soon will be in district 20 schools. I really decided to run because I want to ensure that our district continues to to have a focus on attracting and retaining great quality talent, that we make sure our tax dollars are spent wisely and that that money is going to our students directly. And I also want to ensure that every child feels safe and supported across our schools. Um, even though I am half a world away this evening, my heart and focus are right at home in D20 and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the question uh the conversation this evening. >> Thank you. Susan Payne, one minute. So,
009hi everyone. Um, my name is Susan Payne. I currently s serve on the Academy District 20 board. It's an honor to be part of an organization that served my family so well. Um, I'm a proud mom of three children that graduated from District 20 and went on to higher education. One went to the Air Force Academy and they all have been very successful in their careers and that's what we want for our children is those career focus. Uh, my background has been in law enforcement, retired from the Clar Springs Police Department, special agent for the state and then safe to tell founder and executive director at the attorney general's office. Um, I've spent my life protecting children in our schools, in our safety, in our community, and um, I hope that I can bring some
010of those systematic frameworks as a a director on the board of education. Um, I was raised here. I'm from a family here. Um, I chose to raise my children here and I hope that my children move back here and I just hope that we can create a safe environment in District 20. Oh, I'm gonna end. >> Thank you, Eddie Waldrup. One minute. Thank you everyone for being here. Um I'm a proud D20 parent. Um I have a lot of ties to Colorado Springs. I first came here with the Army where I deployed it's beeping zero so for some reason. I don't know why but um but uh uh deployed out of Fort Carson and my wife um and I we met here after deployment. Um our daughter was born on Fort Carson and we looked
011for many years about kind of opportunities to come back to Colorado because this really where our heart is. We moved back here in 2019 and we moved back to uh district 20 specifically because uh district 20 has a great reputation and we wanted our daughter to be able to go to middle school and high school with her same friends. Um not sure. Oh, so I got 30 seconds. Uh um currently I'm a clinical psychologist. After I got the military, I became a clinical psychologist. So I'm really uh focused on how much uh learning and development is important for our kids. So I want make sure they have a strong academic foundation. Some of the priorities I have for running for school board is first of all academic excellence. Um also building confidence and character by
012giving our kids tough but achievable goals to accomplish. Um as well as kind of ensuring kind of parental engagement and parental rights. Make sure parents are involved in all levels of the education process. So I'd love to have your support and elect Eddie Waldrick.com. >> Thank you Jennifer Stites. One minute. >> Hi there everybody. Thank you so much for coming tonight. Um I have current students in ASC20 schools. I have a fifth grader and a ninth grader. I'm a dedicated volunteer and I'm a former employee. I had the opportunity to work as a par profofessional at Shinook Trail Elementary. I got to see firsthand um the amazing work that our educators and staff do on a daily basis for our students. Um a little bit about me. I'm originally from Northern Minnesota. My My mom
013was a single mom um working multiple jobs to um just barely make ends meet. Um it was difficult. Um and so my public education was what changed my trajectory. Um I went to college, I uh graduated law school, and then I was admitted into the bar in 2006. >> I am sitting here as an ardent supporter of public education. Cynthia Halverson, one minute. >> Good evening. Thank you. I'm so humbled and blessed to be here. Um I am a girl from the Midwest who was brought here by the Lord to stand um for the children, to speak for the children. My heart has always been with them. I come from a background where I did work in a school district in the Midwest. I was blessed to work in an inner city school, so there
014were lots of challenges and lots of things that we had to meet. Um but the Lord's put it on my to be a part of this school board to look at some of the things that have been changing in the last few years and see if those are the thing the changes that we want. I want all parents to have authority over their children and um I want all children to be good citizens of their communities. I recently graduated from Caris Bible College and practical government school. So my my heart is also for our our children learning about our government and being a part of good citizen and a part of their as they graduate. Thank you and I sure appreciate your vote. >> Thank you candidates. We'll now move into our moderated question and
015answer. Each candidate will have 75 seconds per question. And I was impressed that you all used that minute well right there. My producers would tell you that I can't say my name and hello in a minute. So, uh, that was good. All right, 75 seconds per question, answering in a rotating order with no rebuttals. Here's question one. District needs are shaped by limited resources and aging facilities. What principles would guide your decisions about budgeting reserves and potential future bond or mill levy measures to support facilities and student learning. Renee Mallaloy Lulham, you have 75 seconds. >> Thank you so much. This is a huge issue to our district. We have over half billion dollars of deferred maintenance cost. And while that number seems large, the reality of it is even bigger. When we think of
016safety and health for our students and our staff, that's really critical. So when we think about this big pool of needs that we have, the question is what are the principles that are going to guide our decisions? How do we balance all of these things when we have a limited budget? were the lowest funded 178 out of 178 as far as school districts in the in our state per pupil funding. So that means that what we have to do is we have to look at creative solutions and we also have to think of terms of our rocks, right? So you might have seen that video, right, with the jars and you've got the sand and the water and the pebbles and the boulders. And when you're thinking about priorities, you have to have a method
017to approach it. If you take those big rocks and you put them in after you the sand and they're not going to fit. When we think about our priorities, we need to think in terms of what is the best benefit to the most amount of students. And when we think about our cost, we need to look at, okay, we've got this cost. If we don't do it now and it breaks, what result is that going to lead to? And so, when we're thinking about a water heater that breaks, that's a problem, right? That drips on the principal's desk. I think my time's up, but thank you. >> Thank you, Brandon Clark. You have 75 seconds. Yeah, thank you. Um, so I would agree with what Renee was was hitting on is that it really comes
018down to our priorities as a district. And I think when we start thinking about priorities as a district, we have to start thinking about not not necessarily what's happening in the short term, but also what's happening in the long term. Um, and I think it is vitally important that we start looking at things like our our population densities, what schools are going to be open in the next five years, where do we see new populations coming up to help prioritize how we're going to be spending our money. Um, and then I think it goes back to some of our our our guiding principles around um what is a a a got to have right now that is affecting a lot of students and what is maybe something a nice to have um that we can
019we can delay for a little bit. I do think whenever it comes to our our budgets, we have to we can't put everything together. We have to we have to be strategic about how we start grouping our items and and and thinking about what is going to be a critical critical component for for right now versus a nice to have later on down the road. >> Thank you. Susan Payne, you have 75 seconds. So the strategic pro approach when you look at the aging facilities and the demographics right here in Colorado Springs. I mean this used to be the place where everyone really wanted to move and now we look at the cost of homes that becomes unaffordable for new families or young families that are raising children in those early years. So the demographics
020do make a difference. I think with Air Academy 1956 is the year it was built. that's where my children went to school um in high school. And seeing what we had to do last year with the federal grant that's funding 80% of a new build there with a 20% match that was voted on in um a bond last year. So when we look at those creative solutions, we do have the issue of being 178 school districts and the lowest funded of those per pupil. um we do have to prioritize not only for the first year, the year ahead, but then three and five years out and how do we continue to grow um an infrastructure that needs that support. I would say that in visiting schools this year, it's been a nice opportunity to see
021where some of those funds from the past have gone to to improving those spaces for our children and those learning environments to include some of the most technology efficient ways to improve learning. Thank you. Eddie Waldruff, you have 75 seconds. >> Uh, I agree with the, you know, many of the things have been said here today. So, I think, um, if I think about priorities, the way I would prioritize these things is, first of all, safety. Unfortunately, we live in a world where there's a lot of safety concerns out there. And parents want to know that when they send their kids off to school that they're going to come home at night. So, I think that's going to be one of our our top priorities. Next, I would prioritize maintenance. Um, we have a one
022of the elements of safety is making sure the doors lock, everything is working the way it's supposed to. And also for myself, I've been in many of these schools where I've seen the same broken toilets for two or three years. Um, I think if we have a a clean and functional environment that is conducive to learning and our kids feel, you know, safe and proud to be in there. Uh, I'd also think about kind of focusing on how we enhance kind of evidence-based outcomes for academics. Um, I think there's ways that we could streamline those things. So if we have our safety and the maintenance things are going well there, then we want to make sure our kids are doing the absolute best that they can. And so make sure we have resources available for
023teachers, for continuing education, you know, curriculum resources and funding going that direction. Uh when it comes to trying to to reach out to the community for money, I know we've had a couple times where things been uh voted down before, I think if the community is not seeing a good connection where we're asking for money and it's going to be actually translated to something they see as uh reasonable and purposeful, then we're going to have a hard time. So, want to make sure we tie what we're asking for to an outcome. >> Thank you. Jennifer Stites, you have 75 seconds. >> Um, in our weeks of talking to voters, um, they are really laser focused on prioritizing uh, student achievement. And we really need to make all of our efforts um, focused in that direction.
024And the very first thing um, I've heard is that we don't get to have great schools without great teachers. And so one of our one of my big priorities is to make sure that we retain um hire and support amazing staff. Um that has to be right up there with like an exploding boiler. Um if we cannot retain staff, we are not going to have great schools. As far as the facilities, we really have to get creative. Um so we have a list of of deferred maintenance. Um, I think parents and community members really want to know what the plan is. We have to prioritize um what goes onto that list and we have to look at short and long-term um effects of not addressing that maintenance. Are we making the problem worse and more
025expensive by putting it off? Um and finally, I think we have to be creative in finding funding solutions. Can we find a grant for mental health? Can we find a grant to help with capital costs? Can we find a um money um additional money for security? Um just I'm out of time. Sorry. >> Thank you. Cynthia Halverson, you have 75 seconds. >> As long as I've been involved in schools, money's always been an issue and it all probably always will be an issue. One thing that I first thought of when he brought up this question is we are seeing much much increase in building and homes in our area. So people are moving here from all from different states bringing their children with increase in in the um housing here. We're getting increase in funding
026for the children coming to the schools. I'd like to really dig deep and see where that increased funding is being used. Um and I agree with Jennifer that we do need to uh attract quality teachers and our teachers aren't being paid as well as other districts are. I know we can't really uh compare ourselves to Denver, but we do sometimes. Um, but we do need to have uh teachers that are are given a good salary for what they do. Um, another thing that I think about is security with the way that our world is being um turned right now, and I know we're in a turning point, and I hope we're turning to the right point, and I'm going to stand for that. But we do need to increase security. There's a lot of things
027happening in schools that we need to address. So, um I think we just need to dig deep and uh prioritize how we are spending what we do have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Holly Trip, you have 75 seconds. >> When you run a small business, it's very critical that you understand where your money is going and even more critical to understand why it's going there. I don't think a school budget is any differently. You have to know the why before you say the what or the how much. And for me, the why of spending money has everything to do with student outcomes. We all want the same thing. We want our children to grow into good, capable, empowered adults. And so, we have to look at is the money we're spending going for that purpose?
028If we're going to accomplish those things, there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that call for attention. curriculum resources. Is the professional development that we're giving to our teachers actually useful to them and not wasting their time? Are we aligning the goals of facility maintenance with the most pressing problems as has been spoken of here. There are some things that can wait and some things that can't wait. And we want to make sure that we're addressing those things aggressively and maybe getting a little more creative in how we're doing those things. Ultimately, we want safe and well-educated children. And that's the why. And we can ask for that in the community. >> Thank you. >> We will continue to shift who starts the order for question two. And question two is as follows.
029How would you assess whether curriculum, instructional practices, and assessments are effectively improving student outcomes? What metrics or evidence would you rely on? And how would you collaborate with the superintendent and the board to share concerns and provide feedback on potential next steps? Brandon Clark, you have 75 seconds. >> Yeah, I appreciate the question. Um, so I think when we think about assessing curriculum and student outcomes, there's a there's not a one-sizefits-all approach. And and for me, whenever I think about what is our ultimate goal as an education system, it really comes down to yes, academic outcomes, but also are we are we building students to be successful in whatever they want to go do after they leave our district? and and and I think about that in in a big way around are we creating
030contributing members of society, people that can go out into the world and and and have success and find success in whatever it is that they want to do. And a lot of time test scores don't don't do that. So I I think it is important that we have a two-way conversation with the superintendent, with the teachers, with the principles at our schools to understand what are they seeing, not just from an academic outcome uh perspective, but also how are their students fairing in social environments, how are their students fairing in in in challenging situations? And we want to be sure that we're looking not just at again uh uh one metric, but we're looking at how how are we wrapping our arms around the students as a whole. >> Thank you. Susan Payne, you have
03175 seconds. So in this question, when we're assessing curriculum and instructional instructional practices, part of the professional learning um that we see in district 20 is something that I've had the opportunity to visit with and go actually directly visit and walk through schools, boots on the ground, to see what's working and where we're seeing those measurable outcomes. So when we look at those measurable um those things that tell us how children are improving and where they're improving in reading and math and where we can bring it down to our individual schools, we want to see what's working. And I think in the near future, part of the strategic plan would be where we see it working in 2025 and how do we integrate those consistently across the district. Because when we look at common sense
032and dollars and cents, individualizing programs here and there doesn't always get us the bang for our buck. So when we're out there and looking at the curriculum that's having the best achievement, that's being successful in our classrooms, looking at consistent model districtwide and working with our pro our professional learning services to kind of see how they're managing that from the umbrella to make sure that that education is getting down to the classrooms on the best practices and what works. >> Thank you. Eddie Waldrup, you have 75 seconds. >> Uh yeah, thank you. I am actually uh teaching a class at UCCCs currently. it's on cognitive assessment and one of the things we do show is actually how well you perform on standardized tests does translate to predict a lot of future success in whatever it
033is if it's academics or in your job career. So I really think focusing on uh math and reading proficiency as one way to take a look at those things as well as looking at the PSAT scores the CMAS scores to really say is what we're using and the way we're approaching these things actually producing measurable outcomes that we want to achieve. Um there's a a great uh thing story out there. I'm not sure if a lot of people are tracking it. It's called the Mississippi miracle. So what happened is that Mississippi had traditionally been one of the lower performing states in academics. And around 2013, they started make changes and how they approach those things and they started using evidence-based curriculum and measurable outcomes. uh science of reading for example they started bringing in literacy
034coaches helping people improve the way they read basic phonics because there's a lot of these different methods of teaching out there that are shown to have our reading proficiency really just drop through the floor u and they were able to improve their scores since 2014 when they started implementing these things so I think having evidence-based curriculum measuring those outcomes having consultants and coaches to help with reading as well as math proficiency and that's why we move forward >> thank you Jennifer Stites you have 75 seconds. >> Um so our um whole mission here is to um prepare students to be um to be fully prepared for success. Um and we want to do that through curriculum that is uh peer-reviewed, scientifically accepted. Um we want to make sure that this curriculum is engaging and is
035um put uh forward in a straightforward um easy to teach manner. I also think that it's important, I've heard um the superintendent talk about this several times, is um the PLC times that allows teachers to be able to um collaborate together to work on what students what individual students may need. Um on the school level, we have interventionists and it's so important that we have staffing to support this. um if we want students to achieve, we need to be able to provide them the student uh the services to get them there. So, for instance, my daughter um needed reading intervention and she was caught early and they caught her up by third grade and that as we all know is being able to read proficiently by third grade is a is an indicator for future
036success. So, um that we just really need to focus on those resources. >> Thank you. Cynthia Halverson, you have 75 seconds. probably not going to make any points here, but when I was at the last schoolboard meeting and I saw the CAMASS scores, I was absolutely amazed and quite um not angered by it, but u quite amazed at where we are. And then I went home and I compared to other states and we're much lower than other states in our scores. Um how does the curriculum uh play into that? I I would like to go back and look at when the scores started dropping and how often the curriculum has been changed. I don't know because I've been a student myself and haven't been going to schoolboard meetings and looking into that. I intend to
037do that. Um but when there's a change in in the students achievements change and um we need to look into why that is. So I'd like to investigate into that and also um I'm concerned about the agendas that have been uh introduced to our children in the schools and is it helping their achievement? is as it introduced through curriculum and our other ways. And I just want to make sure that we're very very focused on giving the children what they need to be good adults and of um effective adults in our communities and they're ready to go out and and be adults and have the knowledge and the skills and the wisdom that they need to do that. Our curriculum is very much dependent on that. So I think we have a lot of investigation
038to do. Thank you. >> Thank you. Holly Trip, you have 75 seconds. >> So, when we're looking at whether things are effective or not, we have a baseline level of knowledge and understanding that we expect from kids and those show up on standardized tests from Dibbles and uh CASS and PAD and all these different things. So, we definitely want to keep track of what those scores look like and we want to move the needle on those and make sure that we're that we're hitting high levels for those kinds of scores. But we also want to be looking at growth. I want to give a little shout out to the sped team because this year they saw an increase in growth for those um at risk students in their sped program where they were able to
039really push the growth. And so we want to make sure we're measuring against baseline knowledge and using evidence-based curriculum to do that and also acknowledging the growth. It is happening and needs to yet happen. I think we've uh gotten used to a certain level of performance and I I would like for um I'd like to see us move that up drastically so that we're not going along at the you know 60% reading and 50% in math on CMASS and we really are moving the needle on those curriculum is an important part of that seeing the fidelity that it's being used to and so forth. Thank you. Renee Mallaloy Ledlum, you have 75 seconds. >> Thank you. So, when we think of outcomes, ultimately we're thinking about success after graduation. We're not just thinking about standardized
040tests turning over year after year. We're thinking about the needle moving up, right? We're thinking about the trends, but we're also looking at how are students feeling connected? What are the levels of interaction in terms of clubs and activities that they're doing? In terms of curriculum, we are obligated as a school board to take the state directions and apply those. Right? So in terms of our our textbooks, in terms of our curriculum, it needs to align to the state standards, it needs to be science-based, it needs to be da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d dab based etc fact based um but
041there's a process you know I I am not qualified to review that textbook at that level of depth. There's a whole team and a whole process that that's going to go through and I am certainly going to be involved in checking that. But it is a collaboration between the school board, the state, the local and our educators. One thing we need to look at is how are we connecting with our educators? Because we know test scores do not give the whole picture. They are a snapshot. They're a snapshot of a moment and maybe they're helpful. They are a useful tool, but we cannot rely on them to be the only metric that we are looking at. So, how are the other ways that we are connecting with our educators and our administrators? We're hiring these
042amazing people. We need to trust them, but we also need to connect with them. >> Uh, we appreciate your attention to the timing so far. Thank you candidates for your insights as we continue through our questions. We'll jump right into question three, which is this. If you saw concerns about safety at a D20 school being shared on social media sites, what would you do next? How would you address any safety concerns you may have and or provide feedback regarding ideas to improve safety to the board and superintendent? Susan Payne, you have 75 seconds. Well, as the founder of Safe to Tell and responding to incidents across the country, I've been part of the Secret Service um National Threat Assessment Center in doing the studies of what went wrong prior to an incident and what we've
043learned in hindsights. But one, if you see concerns about someone's safety, your own or someone else's, you need to report it. It can be done through safe to tell. It can be done through 911, but it is important that we draw that. That's everyone's responsibility. Um, social media is a big concern. We look at, um, some of the exposure and contagion that our young people face today on social media and on the dark web and how we look at assessing the threats that exist and how we get upstream of that and making sure that we have a safe learning environment, that we have a safe community. I just flew in on a plane from Utah after spending the last two weeks there. And I would just tell you more than ever before, we all need
044to come together. We have more in common than we do apart. We want our children to be safe. We want our schools to be safe. We want our communities to be safe. And that's going to take all of us working together. As far as feedback, behavioral threat assessment practices, and an upstream approach, I'm proud to say that District 20 has armed security even in elementary schools and one of the most robust armed security divisions in the state of Colorado. >> Thank you, Eddie Waldrip. You have 75 seconds. Uh well, if I was to see these things, I would first call 911 depending especially on the urgency of whatever the threat was that I saw and then immediately call uh to our security team uh within District 20. I think we have a great security team
045as Susan just mentioned. Uh we do have armed RSOs and um in all of our schools, even down to the elementary schools, which is amazing, especially what we've seen going across the country. So, that'd be kind of the first in getting that mobilized and moved. And if I was going to provide feedback uh regarding ideas about improving safety, it'd be along the same lines like I was already referring to. How do we make sure that our maintenance is up? Make sure that if we have our our doors that all of our doors actually lock and close. Unfortunately, we just saw the recent shooting uh up north of here where that's one of the things that actually saved a lot of lives is that a lot of the kids were able to go into classrooms and
046the doors did not open when the shooter was going around trying to open different doors. So, we make sure we have the resources in place, the maintenance in place, alert the team immediately, and then respond to everything as we can uh and keep open communication too with our parents and all of our stakeholders. >> Thank you, Jennifer Stites. You have 75 seconds. >> Um, being a parent in D20 schools, I've always felt that um I had um ability to communicate with the administration there. um they have been welcoming to um to answer questions and to respond to feedback. Um as a couple of the candidates have already said, the hard side of security is very important. Um but I think we also have to really look at the soft side of security. Um are we
047creating a a school environment that is welcoming? Right? Um is our zero tolerance for bullying um policy is that policy effective? Do our counselors have the resources that they need to be able to do their jobs? Um, in addition, is there enough counselors? I talked to one counselor who um served a couple hundred kids, about 450 kids. Is it we have to look and see is that enough? Um, so I think that um those things you need both of them, the hard side and the soft side. And then in addition, safety is not just um with these horrible school shootings. It's also in the maintenance and making sure that our um facilities are safe and addressing the crosswalk situation, making sure that there's guards there. >> Thank you, Cynthia Halverson. You have 75 seconds. >>
048Thank you. I think um just seeing the security here tonight, we know that D20 takes security very seriously, and I'm glad that they do. when I see something on social media and there are concerns, my first thing is is is this true? Is this real? Because social media isn't a a a media that we can depend on to to be true and to be real. Um being a Christian, I would definitely immediately pray about this. I would command that um total protection around the children, around the teachers, around the staff, around the school. Um, but I think that uh we can never ignore an alert that we just need to take it very seriously and I know that D20 does that and again that's one of the things when we first our first question was
049about budget and security is something that we have to look at and make sure that we are budgeting for that. I know that every time I have gone to a D20 school, I've gone through um locked doors, you know, making sure that I go through the secretary and and no one is allowed to just walk in any door anytime they want and I think they've beefed up the security quite well in the D20 schools. Thank you. >> Thank you, Holly. Trip, you have 75 seconds. So, a few days ago, I spoke to a father who was very frustrated because the busing had been reduced in D20. And when it was put back after the COVID years, it didn't quite meet his daughter's doorstep anymore. And she now has along with others in their um area
050have to go through a few different, you know, roads and then actually cross research parkway without a crosswalk, without a light. That's a safety issue. And I don't know if I'm the only one that heard that, you know. So, we really we really want our parents to report things that they see and to come to the board to come to the administration and make those things known because sometimes we don't have the firhand knowledge of what your child is experiencing on their way to school. So, please, I would ask all parents, I mean, we're preaching to the choir, right? you are the involved ones, but please continue to be involved and speak up for your children. I echo the thoughts about, you know, safety begins in the heart. We've got to make sure kids are
051experiencing real achievement and growth and real connection. And I la our our safety officers. They're doing a great job. And I'm so thankful for safe to tell and the um the avenue that is to help protect our community. >> Thank you, Renee Mallaloy. Ledlum, you have 75 seconds. >> Social media is a blessing and a curse. It gives the opportunity for people to in real time respond and flag things and maybe do videos, all of those things, right? But it's it's tricky because we don't always know what what is true and not. That's not for me to decide. It is to run up the chain as we talked about as others have talked about. In terms of safety, I feel like a lot of people have covered. Um it's not just about, you know, school
052shooters. Certainly that is something that we take very seriously in the district. We do have protocols etc. But it is hearing about the students. Um I live in the Rockman area. There was a student who got hit going to the bus stop this year. Last year few blocks down another student got hit going to and from school. The year before a student in the district was killed. These are real security problems that we need to think about when we're thinking of security. It is as Jenna said it is the safety of our buildings. It's also the safety of getting from the doorstep to the school. And as far as collaboration, I think it comes back to are we a place, are we a welcoming place where we have a process for going through those thoughts?
053And in terms of giving feedback, providing ideas um it needs to be an open dialogue. It needs to be something that we are intentionally giving time and effort to if we are not already doing so. And so thinking about problem solving, we're a team. >> Thank you. Brandon Clark, you have 75 seconds. >> Yeah, thanks. I'll echo a lot of the same things that everybody else said. I think that um first and foremost, the role of the board isn't necessarily to step in and solve a problem whenever they see it. But to be sure that those uh concerns are getting addressed to the right place. And of course, it is if it is like a a a major thing that requires 911, we have a responsibility to get it there. But also if it's a
054if it's a concern with other safety measures like let's just be sure that that is getting to the right place to get investigated. I think often when we think about safety we think about the big stuff but there is a lot of small stuff that comes in safety as well right it comes down to how are our students feeling supported. it comes down to um are our buildings safe places for our students to be in even um and I think when we have the discussions around the board we can't do that stuff or around safety we can't do that stuff in a vacuum we need to be sure we're facilitating conversations with our community um because a lot of the times that stuff isn't prevalent we're we're aware of what's going on in the national
055news we're aware of u the big things but it's it's often uh not really recognized that in rock riman we have wildlife concerns that we need to we need to potentially address as well as our kids are walking to school. So, we need to be sure we're facilitating those conversations with the community and and and being sure we're we're having open dialogue about the safety concerns our parents and students have. Thank you. I wanted to thank the audience at this point for respecting the guidelines that we talked about as we began. We'll move right into question four. How do you define effective board governance and transparency? What practices would you support to build trust and involve families, staff, and community members in providing feedback to the district? Eddie Waldrup, you have 75 seconds. >> Yeah.
056So, the uh board governance model we have here is the Carver model. Um the kind of the the way that is set up is that uh the board's responsibilities to determine what are the goals and the ends that we want our to see within our district and then we kind of set those up for the superintendent to be able to achieve those things. We try to establish, yeah, clear and achievable goals and have metrics about how well that's being achieved within it. And then it's the superintendent's job to go out and um execute those things. I think there are some uh room for a little bit more of u uh feedback from the school board. Uh but that's not the same thing as a school board taking over or micromanaging or things like that. So
057I think there might be different ways to think about potential hybrids with those things come up important areas, but that would involve kind of board involvement as well as working with the superintendent. Um, and for transparency, one of the things that I know for myself, I've been to going to schoolboard meetings and I've seen some of the same faces here for a while. So glad to see everyone. Um, a lot of times there seems like there's decisions that are being made and even though I was showing up when I was I was coming there, I didn't feel like I had a good sense what was driving a lot of those things. So I think really uh having more transparency about how those decisions are being made. if things are being made during maybe the day
058when I'm at work, have it more feasible or access or accessible for people so they can uh catch up when they have a little bit of their own time without doing like a 4-hour dig. >> Thank you, Jennifer Stites. You have 75 seconds. >> This issue has come up time and time again in our conversations. And I think the very first thing that we have to do is acknowledge what the board's role is and that is governing not managing. We have to make sure that the board is laser focused on the ends that we are going to be trying to meet for our students and let administration handle the how they get that done. Um when the board um gets involved in the how that muddies the water and um so I would I am
059very much in uh favor of keeping our policy governance um model that we have as far as transparency. Um, I am all for going back to two meetings a month. I think we need that time to be able to carefully consider the work before the board. I think we gloss over things like the executive limitations. I think we can have much more conversation about that. I think as far as transparency goes, um, we also need to have, um, less I I don't know what's happening in the executive sessions, but they have quadrupled in the past, um, in the past year. And so I know that parents are really interested in knowing what's going on. Um, and it must be pretty important because it's taking a lot of time. >> Thank you. Cynthia Halverson, you have
06075 seconds. >> Thank you. Well, I know that this is a huge concern and as I'm door knockocking, I'm hearing this from parents um that the communication is they're able to get up and talk at a board meeting and say their concerns, but there's no communication. There's no feedback from the school board and when policies are changed or or um things are changed within the school, they're just the parents don't know about it. And even as I I talk to parents about some of my concerns, they don't even know that those are concerns that those are things are that are happening in the schools. And I know part of that is due to the fact that they're not attending schoolboard meetings. And I agree with Jenna that we do need to go back to two
061meetings per month. Um they're long meetings. They're very involved. Uh people have already put in full work days, those parents that are coming and um so the board members, many of them. And uh we need to make sure that that we have good good communication with the parents on a regular basis and they know what's going on and why what is the intent when we change policy and when we change things as as a school board in our district and in our schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. Holly Trip, you have 75 seconds. So the school board is the only elected body that is accountable to you um in the district in the entire school system. For that reason, the board should not be surprised when a policy comes to the four. They should know
062about that policy and have um had a chance to discuss that with the administration. which is not to say that the board should be doing all of the administrative policies or making all of the decisions. We have really great committees and teams and experts that work on those things and we want to honor their expertise and do honor their expertise. But the board should have a seat at the table in especially in some of these really big uh valuel laden policies to make sure that the board is reflecting the values of the community. That is the board's role to set a vision and guard rails that reflect the values of the community. We want to make sure we're doing that, but we're not we don't want to take over and invalidate the expertise that exists
063in all of those wonderful people that are working for our kids. >> Thank you. Renee Mallaloy Lulum, you have 75 seconds. >> Transparency is not just a buzzword. It's something that we need to live and show in our actions. When we look at the board, our shift, as Jenna has mentioned, from having public meetings twice a meet, twice a month, um to having fewer meetings, having more special sessions, having meetings behind closed doors, etc. All of those things are they're the the cracks are showing, right? People have a hard time in our communities trusting each other, let alone in our uh institutions, right? So, we have a lot of work to do and we need to start by managing the things that we can change ourselves. And that means our board meetings. That's an easy
064place for us to start. Go back to two meetings. Plan on having the ability to sign up for the meetings right up until the time that the meeting goes in, maybe five minutes before other institutions locally such as our um our library district, other meetings allow this type of interaction. Why are we not having the ability to have people participate online um as they have in many other areas of life? Um so these are solutions that we can look at to make meetings easier to be engaged and interactive with. Um other things that we can do are making sure that we are saying who where where the person is from and change the length of time that people are able to speak. >> Thank you. Brandon Clark, you have 75 seconds. Yeah, I think that,
065you know, first and foremost, the board should be responsible for defining the outcomes and and holding the superintendent and and the superintendent staff accountable to those outcomes. I think there's less of a responsibility to say, as somebody else mentioned, the the how we get there, but we do want to be setting the direction as to where we're going, right? Um I think it's important that we have community involvement in that direction as well. as elected officials, of course, we're we're elected to to represent the community, but um over the course of the term, those priorities may change within the community. It's important that we have open lines of communication. Some of the things that I I think about whenever I think about this is ensuring that those open lines aren't just at the board meeting.
066I think board meetings are vital, but there's also other avenues to be getting feedback. we have DACK, we have SAC, we have some of these other things across the district that um I know we have board representation on like how can we continue to facilitate community involvement in those and and be sure we're getting community feedback. I also think that as a board member um for me personally a priority is going to be like being sure that I'm out in the community, being sure that I'm available, being sure that I am in the schools, not there to check up on people, but just as a representative, somebody to cheer them on and somebody to to be available to hear concerns. And as I mentioned in my other answer like being sure that those concerns get
067directed to the right place. >> Thank you Susan Payne. 75 seconds. >> Um on the policy governance I one of the things is the narrative that went out into the community is that was like a topic of conversation and for me I'm I always like to go back to when it was created under uh spoke with superintendent Mark Hatchel and Deputy Superintendent Karen Reynolds when that came about. uh just wanted to give that is the Carver method and that is exactly where the board has the authority to tighten the rails so to speak or what's between the goalposts with our ends and what we want our desired directives to be and I would want to just clarify that part of the reason that conversation came about because of a ripple effect through the fairness in
068sports um which we'll probably be talking about at some point tonight but that rippled into several policies that had to be modified And I think with transparent dialogue and learning the process that district 20 has in place that gives I I don't I personally don't want to do the job of what we've hired exceptional people to do. That is the board's role is to direct that through the superintendent and to make sure that the superintendent is accountable for the values of this committee of the this community that we serve and the board in those directions. So, I just wanted to be really clear that policy governance has worked for 20 years and I don't see it changing. >> Thank you. Moving right into question five. Budget constraints affect the resources available to support student learning.
069What guiding principles would shape your decisions at the board level? And how would you work with the superintendent and fellow board members to ensure student achievement remains the top priority? Jennifer Stites, you have 75 seconds. >> Um, so I think we have um started to talk about this, but student achievement is really the reason why we are here today. It's the reason why I am here today. Um, student achievement is what we want for all of our kids to be able to um to become all that they can be. And how can we do that? As I've mentioned before, we need to make sure that we retain, support, and attract quality teachers. Um, we don't want to be losing teachers to other districts. Um, we want to make sure that culture is um that our
070culture is not affecting teacher morale and staff morale. Um, so I think that that is uh very important and I think as far as giving teachers resources um making sure that they have time to be able to um plan and to collaborate with their colleagues. Also, we can't ignore things like classroom size. Um, I've heard from many many teachers that with the with the growing number of students in the classroom, it's just becoming harder to manage those those classrooms. Um, and so I just think having a really open dialogue with teachers is so important about how we can make sure that our students achieve. >> Thank you, Cynthia Halverson. 75 seconds. I absolutely agree that our student achievement is the number one priority and that is why we're here. And when we look at the
071budget and we're trying to decide what goes where and why, that has to be at the top of the list. Um I'm very concerned about distraction in the classroom. um we are paying the teachers to teach and we want to make sure that they're they're focusing on the core curriculums and not other things that have been being brought in and is it attributing to the students betterment to their wisdom their knowledge I I want to make sure also and this is my past but when I worked in the school district there was a lot of change on curriculum it costs a lot of money to change curriculum all the time um we want to make sure that the curriculum that we choose and what we pay for it is one that's getting the results that
072we want and that we're not um spending money um that we are spending money wisely on on the curriculum and that we are getting not only um not only the test scores because there's so much more important than the test scores that is how we judge it but uh we want to make sure that the students are engaged and they they are they are loving learning and we make it a great envirment for them to do so. So again, >> Thank you, >> Holly Trip. You have 75 seconds. >> The top of the hill, so to speak, are foundational skills that every child needs by the time they leave this system. So they need to be able to read well, preferably at grade level, at every grade. They need to be able to reason and
073think clearly based on a set of facts and knowledge that they actually own. and they need to be able to communicate effectively and civily both online but also in person. Those are the fundamental things we're trying to have happen and there are a lot of things that get in the way of that. We can have culture issues in a classroom where ideologically things are getting in the way. But the thing I hear most from teachers is the disruptions in the classroom that are happening. Uh typically behavioral disrup disrupt disruptions where a class and a teacher have to evacuate their classroom because one child is throwing desks or attacking the teacher. These things are happening all over the place in the schools and are one of the number one drivers for teachers leaving um our district
074and leaving this career path, this calling that they have. So, I want to the board needs to look at that. How do we support those teachers and how do we keep those things at the top? Let's make sure we back up the policies that are in place to tamp that. >> Renee Malloy Lulham, you have 75 seconds. When we think of student outcomes, we need to think about all the different touch points that are going to inform that. Obviously, the teachers and staff are going to be number one. We've got curriculum, things like that. We've got to look creatively when we're thinking about our budget priorities because that's what the question was about. When we're thinking about our budget priorities, obviously, we need to make sure that our our staff are here, they want to
075be here, um that they are compensated in a way that is competitive, um that they feel supported. But support comes in multiple ways, right? It can come in classroom sizes. it can come in time and able to be prepare preparedness things like that. Um so when we're thinking about achievement obviously we want that is the number one like we are all here for the students everyone is here for the students and so when we're thinking about the learning environment we need to think about the teachers we need to make sure that the environment that they are in is comfortable and safe so they have HVAC that works you know small things like that make a big difference in class if we have too many students and we don't have enough uh parah or special education
076support for these different students who have different needs that makes Is it a challenging learning environment for everyone? Right? So, we need to make sure that our teachers and our staff are supported on all ends. Um, and then our classroom setting needs to be safe. It needs to be healthy. It needs to be a place where we are equipped and ready to learn because that is how we get the outcomes that we're after. We know that we have great families. >> Brandon Clark, you have 75 seconds. >> Yeah. I I really believe that we can't have strong schools if we don't have strong teachers in our in our classrooms. And our students aren't going to achieve if they're not learning from great quality folks that are that are helping to teach them. And I think
077we're not going to have strong teachers in our classroom if we don't have a culture that supports them. And as others have mentioned, like culture comes in a lot of different forms. It comes down to how many students do I have in CLA in class. It comes down to do I have the right level of support uh support staff, aids, paras, whatever that is uh in the classroom as well. It comes down to do I feel that my environment is trusting me to do my job right and and uh do I feel empowered to go out and and that I that I am doing a good job. Do I feel that? I think all of those really feed into um uh student achievement at the end of the day. I also think whenever it comes
078down to how we think about budget decisions and making traoffs in our budget to support some of these outcomes, including like how we're continuing to attract and retain quality teachers, we really need to be critical about how many how how is this dollar going to be used and is this dollar going to benefit the most students as possible? Can we can we get the most how are we going to get the most bang for our buck and and that is something that I think needs to be a priority in our budget decision-making. Thank you, Susan Payne. You have 75 seconds. >> So, looking at it from a board level, um you know, I've worked in the classroom, I've been in the boardroom, we've trained in the classroom, trained at the leadership level. And when we
079look at that, one of the things we're looking for is exceptional care, exceptional accountability, and exceptional outcomes. And so when we want our teachers, and that's where I would think we're all agreeing across the board, is a healthy culture and climate, strong morals, like we want to make sure that we have a strong morale amongst our staff, that they're getting that coaching and instruction and professional development, which um personally, I think even even as being on the board, I've had the opportunity to see that firsthand of what's taking place. And I think everyone would agree that we only want to see that there's room for improvement. So how do we take it from good to great are our next steps. And we have to look at all of those things that apply to student achievement
080and that includes the curriculum things. But at the board direction, again, we got to remind ourselves that we just answered the question on policy governance that we're making that directive as a priority from the board and reflecting our community values in making that happen and removing those distractions from the classroom and ensuring that those classrooms are safe places for children to learn and teachers to teach. >> Thank you, Eddie Waldrup. 75 seconds. >> I think uh academic achievement is a responsibility that uh the community confers upon our schools. So, I think that is going to be our top priority. Um, and achieving those goals, like we talked about, we want to have great teachers and support our teachers and I think we do a lot of great things here in the community already. U with
081the superintendent, she talked about having a lot of the continuing education credits offered through uh district 20, which is a great way to support them. I do think we have uh ways to continue to work with them to improve things with, for example, there's a great book uh results 2.0. Uh I believe Schmoker is the author of that book. Um and we take a look at what are the actual evidence-based methods of achieving these outcomes. How can we, you know, streamline our curriculum and things together. So that also reduces some of the burden on the teachers who already have a lot on their plate as we've talked about. Uh but we make sure those things are aligned together to maximize our outcome. And we talk about getting the best bang for a buck. I think
082that's one of the ways that we really do that. Um and then along those same lines, we want to make sure that um our students are engaged in this process. they can see how the results are are um produced and what they can start to feel confident about those things. Not only support the teachers and the streamline the uh academically uh oriented curriculum but also make sure it's taught with fidelity uh because if it's not with fidelity it's not doing us much good. >> Thank you. Moving right into question number six. How would you have approached the recent D20 board resolution on safety and fairness in sports, including the decision to join the CHASA lawsuit? Would you have supported or opposed it and why? Cynthia Halverson, 75 seconds. >> I absolutely agree that boys should
083not be in girls sports or vice versa. I'm glad that they went um that that they joined that lawsuit. And which brings me back to something that that Susan just talked about, morals and values. I see that morals and values that children used to have in in while they were going through school, they don't have today because so many things have been put in front of him and things have been taken away. And when I having just learned about our founding fathers and our framers and how they put our government together, including school government, our first schools, the only textbook in the school was the Bible. That's not being used today. And other books that are coming into the schools that are promoting things like boys being in girls sports and so forth. We have
0841,400 books in our libraries that should not see that our children's eyes should not see, their ears should not hear. And I am just adamant that those books get out of there, that we keep our children focused on the academics and not not these transgender things and not mutilating their bodies and and pushing them to do that. I I just stop my foot on the devil on that. We cannot have this. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Holly Trip, you have 75 seconds. >> Title N was put in place to ensure girls and women have equal access and opportunity in education and sports. When a transgender athlete boy competes in girls sports, they undermine those legal protections in addition to bringing an element of unsafe play for the girls that are participating. Lisa Reignsburgger, Boston
085Marathon winner, testified before the board a few months back that a high school age boy will beat an elite female athlete every time. I did my own research on that. That's true in running. That's true in tennis. That's true in swimming. So, we can't have a situation where no girl can win. One trans athlete will do that. That's not fair to those girls who bring their hearts and souls to that space. We need to set a standard for what women in sports looks like and hold to that standard. So, I do support that lawsuit that was put in place. >> Thank you. Renee Mallaloy Ledlam, you have 75 seconds. Of course, safety and fairness are always going to be number one priority when it comes to the exe the resolution and the the lawsuit that
086followed. The reality is this is a topic that is in the ether, but it is not a reality that our schools are dealing with on a regular basis. As far as we know, there are no transgender students who wish to compete in athletics in the district. We have over 26,000 students. There have been two my understanding from the presentation from the 80 during the lawsuit discussion there have been two in the past plus you know 15 plus years and both were a non-issue. I am not dismissing the the arguments that you'll hear tonight in terms of the complexity of this issue but I will say that the challenge of our school as the lowest funded school district this is already getting worked out in the courts. It has to get worked out in the courts
087and it is not us to decide. So when we make these decisions, we are taking our taxpayer dollars and we are putting them basically in the trash can because those taxpayer dollars are not going to do the most good for the most students. They are addressing an obscure argument while valid that is not a problem in our district. We have a lot of other problems. >> Thank you. Brandon Clark, you have 75 seconds. Yeah, I'll I'll echo a lot of what Renee was just saying. I understand fairness and safety and agree with it wholeheartedly. I don't think it's a real issue that we're facing in District 20 today, but um you know, I understand the need to be sure that if and when something comes up like we have a way to handle it. The
088thing that I really did not agree with was uh how we were spending money on a lawsuit that I really feel like is going to get this is a national narrative that is being talked about not just in Colorado but across the country and there's a decision that's going to get made on that. We have a policy that's protecting our students already in place. Why do we need to spend the money whenever we could we could start ticking off more on our deferred maintenance or start start using that money for other things that are are more prevalent in my opinion in to to supporting our students in the district. >> Thank you. Susan Payne, 75 seconds. >> Well, I let me just say that I'm on the board, so I voted for this and probably
089led part of the charge for this. And I would say um some of the information presented is incorrect. Um we had multiple incidents to refer to of actual incidents of concern um throughout the district. And so the fairness in sports um when a student makes a choice um to choose a different gender, to be on a different team, and to walk into somebody's locker room where they should be private, those are concerns for the safety of children. It also increases grievances districtwide. We needed to have a strong directive so that our coaches and our leadership knew what the direction which is where the board does come in to provide that direction from the top of what that needed to be. Now with the courts, the state law, the state law and chasser rules actually were
090inconsistent with one another. We did have conversations with the attorney general's office and CHASSA before that conversation and had a very transparent meeting which I would encourage you to watch and listen to and also the parents that presented in that board meeting and their concerns about the safety of girls. Now, one hit to the face by a volleyball and a traumatic brain injury means that girls can now go to um try out for a sport and safely compete for that sport and know that a position is not being taken away from them. >> Eddie Waldrip, you have 75 seconds. >> Uh I agree with both the uh the policy as well as the decision to join the lawsuit. Um this is something uh we take a look at these things. There are immutable differences between
091biological males and biological females. That's not going to change at any point. Um we also see if you as a psychologist I follow the evidence regarding these things. If you haven't read it I encourage you to look at the CAST report HHS report on these issues um we see that uh social transition also has a lot of potential harm as well. So, not only do we see that the safety, the physical safety of girls being at put at risk, also potential opportunities being taken away from Title N, be able to compete in sports against their peers, um, but we also see some of the harm that could be done for some people that are dealing with things like gender dysphoria. Um, this is something that's been activist driven. It's never been evidence-based, and that's why
092we even see it in many of the countries where a lot of these things started from are being pulled back. And so, I'm very evidence-based. We want to follow the evidence and make sure we're doing things that are consistent with that. And I think protecting our girls and ensuring that things are segregated where appropriate by biological sex. Uh make sure that we're protecting them in that way. >> Thank you. Jennifer Stites, you have 75 seconds. >> Um so first I wanted to address the resolution. U my concern with the resolution is that it categorically says that all transgender girls um competing would mean that there would be a um that it would be a fairness and safety issue. Um but the resolution does not make um a determination that any one transgender girl would actually
093affect this. And what I mean by this is what safety issue would be presented if a transgender girl participated on an inter mural cross-country team. And so what I would advocate for is a case-byase analysis. And that case by case analysis is actually what um was uh and so there's a case um going to the Supreme Court right now. Um West Virginia um is getting taken to the or is um suing um um on the same policy and their original policy was a case-byase analysis. Then they switched to a total ban, right? This is going to be heard this term. We are going to have an answer. Um, and so that brings me to the lawsuit. I do not think that this lawsuit was an effective use of funds. We are going to have an
094answer um, within this next term. Um, and we can be putting this money towards so many other things. >> Thank you candidates. We will move right into question seven, which is our final question this evening. There's been discussion about the types of books and materials available in school libraries, particularly those that include sexual content. Please speak to your stance on whether you would allow materials with explicit sexual themes to remain accessible to students. Why or why not? And we will come all the way back to this end of the table. And Holly Trip, you have 75 seconds. >> Thank you. We want to surround our kids with the very best content that exists. That goes for books, that goes for movies, that goes for websites and apps. We want to surround them with that. Schools
095have the duty and the right to curate content for students, whether that's websites or apps. We even curate food to make sure that it's healthy for our students. Why would we not curate other content in the school environment to make sure it's healthy? Sexually explicit content, extreme violent content, pornography is not healthy for children of any age. Things that are explicitly instruct them in howtos. Those kinds of conversations belong in the home. They do not belong in the school. We have a limited physical presence to put things and we should be surrounding our students with the best of the best and not with some of this other stuff that is degrading. Thank you Renee Mallaloy Lulham you have 75 seconds. >> So you know I think our heads immediately rush towards the worst case scenarios
096right and of course none of us wants our elementary student reading that. My second thought goes to Shakespeare and is that going to get banned as well? Because there are many sexually referenced uh passages in various classics that we read all the time. Our librarians are trained professionals. Our educators are trained professionals. Of course, we need to have age appropriate, not explicit, not sexual, etc. age appropriate literary sources for students to have access to. Our job, our desire is to have children who are excited to read, to find their passion and their the spark, the light in their eyes. So, by all means, right now, we've got policies where we've got middle schoolers have to opt in to be able to use the library. I don't know in what world that makes sense because we
097already have all the parental controls. If you don't want your student to read a book, if you don't want them to have access to certain curricula, if you don't want them to have access to the library at all, those are already powers that every single parent already has and we have no desire to take those away. So, by all means, age appropriate and let's get our kids reading. >> Thank you. Brendan Clark, you have 75 seconds. Yeah, I think that when I I think about the books in our libraries, I I agree with exactly with what Renee was saying that it it it's important that we have age appropriate books in our libraries. And what's appropriate for an elementary student is going to be different for a middle school student and it's going to be
098different for a high school student. And it's important that we recognize that. I think we really need to be thinking about um you know, do the books that we have in there have literary value? Um, do they align with our district principles? Uh, Renee brought up a good point about, you know, we have situations where parents have the opportunity to opt kids out of certain content and all of that. I I think that that's great. Parents should have a responsibility to understand like what's what's happening in schools with their kids. Um, but I don't want to get down a path of where we're being overly prohibitive because I think it is important that if if we're saying that we want to focus on improving our reading scores and that we are improving our math scores
099and that we're focusing on academic success, we need to be sure that we're providing the right options to our students to be able to do that and a lot of that comes from what we have in our libraries. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, Susan Payne, you have 75 seconds. >> So, District 20 did implement a new policy. So anyone that um has a book of concern that comes to their attention in a library can make a complaint and there is a formal process of review. Um so I think that's important for everyone to understand. The other part of exposure and contagion and when we talk about explicit sexual themes I mean I don't know how when you've been in a school library lately but there's a limited amount of space in school
100libraries. So curating what can go into a school library is very important and making sure that it has a reflection of what's been put in place um from district leadership and that it is academically helping to support our young people in literary content. What I'm not okay is when we look at books that um are explicit in violence and contagion and certainly most of our children have this the worldwide web and the public library where we know that that's a problem. So when we're curating books in district 20 I think it's important that we look at do they have literary value? Do they help expand their ability to academically learn? And does it expand their interest in reading? Thank you. Eddie Waldrup, you have 75 seconds. Uh >> I agree with both what uh Holly
101and Susan have both said. We do have a responsibility to curate the books, the resources, websites, and materials that are our children are being exposed to. Uh when it comes to sexually explicit materials, I think the answer is absolutely. We don't want that in the schools at all. I don't think there's anywhere where that's appropriate. If you have to be 18 years old to buy a Playboy magazine, why are we putting things that are sexually explicit in our schools? That just doesn't make any sense. I think most people kind of agree with that. And it goes even further and said, "I'm sure everyone by now has got to see some of the things that they're talking about where there's graphical depictions of sex acts in some of these books. These are things we absolutely don't
102want to have in our school. And there's no way that I see that that fits uh into uh academic achievement or helping our students build confidence or character or any of the things that we want to prioritize as a district. So I think we do have the responsibility to curate these materials, books, websites, other things. And when it comes to things that are sexually explicit, uh, uh, Shakespeare, I don't think has ever been an issue before. These things have been coming up as an issue obviously in the last few years. So, I don't think we're going to be losing Shakespeare necessarily. Um, but the sexually explicit stuff has no place in our schools. >> Thank you, Jennifer Stites. 75 seconds. >> Um, as uh Renee and Brandon were talking about, our system, um, we have
103a very robust system of, um, parent control. Um, like she said, in middle school, parents have to um fill out a form to even allow their children to have access to the library. Um, and if we want um to I think we just have to be so careful about about pushing our own values on other parents, right? Um, just as I get to make the choices on what my kids get to read, and let me tell you, I have a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old. My 14-year-old is allowed to watch shows and listen to music that is very different than my 10-year-old. Um, and so I am all about age appropriateness and I practice that in my own home. Um, what we have to be careful of is making decisions for other parents, right? And for
104other students. Um, the other thing is is so why are some of these books like The Catcher in the Ry that has um that's sexually explicit. Why is it a classic? It's a classic because it has high literary value, because it focuses on real world problems, because it sparks discussion, um because it points to different um experiences. I think that's important. >> Thank you, Cynthia Halverson. 75 seconds. >> Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this because this is one thing that has just really gotten me going and wanting to change. I had the opportunity just last night to look at many of these books that are in our D20 libraries and you are just this these books are absolutely violating parental authority. I know as a as a parent and a grandparent I
105remember when it was when when I thought I got to choose when to teach my daughter about sex. That's my authority. That's that's something that was very dear to my heart that I got to do that and another parent took that away from me and it hurt so bad. We have no right as a school district to take away that that time that a parent has to to bond with their child and teach them something so sensitive. And these books aren't aren't healthy books that I saw that are in our our um libraries. I don't believe it is up to the schools to teach sex. I don't think it's up to the schools to have these books in our libraries. I'm a previous library manager and we never had books like that in our libraries.
106There were standards to be met. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, let's thank the candidates for Academy School District 20 school board. [Applause] very thoughtful answers and rich discussion tonight. You know, as one member of the academy school district 20 community, I would like to personally thank all of you. Um, school board is a lot of work on a monthly basis and thank you all for being committed and willing to serve in that capacity. This evening, we'd like to thank all of you in person and online for participating as well. Events like these are not easy to put on. They take a lot of work, planning, and preparation. So, I'd like to extend a thank you to the Academy District 20 board of education, the superintendent's office, and the communications team
107of the district for your efforts in bringing this to life tonight. Right outside the auditorium, each candidate has a designated table if you would like to speak with them more this evening. My friends, this concludes tonight's forum. I'm Matt Meister, and it's been an honor to be here with you. Uh, have a good night and drive home safe. Thank you so much.